This invention relates to a data input device and a data input method for inputting data by operating a keyboard displayed on the screen using a pointing device such as a mouse in a portable computer.
In recent years, a demand for a small size computer for use in a mobile environment, which is carried along and used in a place to which it moved or a small size computer of network connection type for use in connection to a network in a place to which it moved, has been increased.
Such a computer is preferentially made in a small size for convenience of portability and, as a consequence, a conventional keyboard is often eliminated in such a computer or, even when a keyboard is provided, operability of the keyboard may not be satisfactory.
In view of the above, a method is often employed in such a small size computer for displaying an image of a keyboard in the display screen and selecting data by pointing at characters in the displayed keyboard for input with a pointing device such as a mouse, that is a data input method using a software keyboard.
A device using such software keyboard is known in an image display control device described in a Japanese Document PUPA 3-251893 (reference 1). Further, a Japanese Document PUPA 4-137125 (reference 2), for example, relates to an engineering workstation in which the same data is inputted and displayed simultaneously in a plurality of windows.
However, the devices described in these references have not solved the complexity of manipulation and unsatisfactory conditions of operability in that, for data input, a target window has to be selected by moving a mouse cursor by manipulating a mouse, the type of data has to be then selected by moving the mouse cursor within the target window, and the mouse cursor has to be moved to the image of software keyboard for inputting data.
This invention was conceived in view of the above described problems and its object is to improve the operability in the inputting technique using a so-called software keyboard. It is another object of this invention to improve the input efficiency of data by minimizing the movement of a pointing device in manipulating a keyboard with a pointing device such as a mouse.
In order to achieve the above objectives, the data input device of this invention includes, a data image display for displaying one or more data images indicating one or more data items to be inputted in a display screen, data input indicating image display feature for displaying a data input indicating image indicating input of data, a pointing feature responsive to external manipulation for pointing the position in the display screen of either one of the displayed data images or the displayed data input indicating image, a data input selecting feature responsive to external manipulation for selecting data indicated by the data image at the position pointed in the display screen, a selected data display feature for displaying one or more selected data items in correlation to the position pointed in the display screen, and a data input feature operable when the position of the data input indicating image is pointed in the display screen for receiving one or more selected data items as input data.
Preferably, the data input device further includes a data conversion indicating feature responsive to external manipulation for indicating to convert the selected data and data conversion features responsive to the indication of data conversion to perform a predetermined conversion of the selected data.
Preferably, the data input device further includes a pointing device, the pointing feature, responsive to manipulation of the pointing device, pointing the position in the display screen of either one of the displayed data images or the displayed data input indicating image to display a cursor at the pointed position, and the selected data display feature displaying the selected data in correlation to the cursor displayed in the display screen.
Preferably, the pointing device has one or more buttons, and the data input selecting feature, responsive to manipulation of the button of the pointing device, selects data indicated by the data image at the pointed position in the display screen.
Preferably, the pointing device has one or more buttons, the data conversion indicating feature, responsive to manipulation of the button of the pointing device, indicates the type of conversion of data, and the data conversion means applies indicated type of conversion to the selected data.
Preferably, the pointing device has multiple buttons, and the data conversion indicating feature indicates conversion of the type corresponding to the combination of the buttons of the manipulated pointing device and the manner of manipulation of the button of the pointing device.
Preferably, the data conversion indicating means indicates at least upper/lower/subscript conversion as the type of conversion in response to manipulation of the pointing device when the selected data is character data, and the data conversion feature performs upper/lower/subscript conversion on the selected data depending on the indicated type of conversion.
The data input device of this invention displays an image of a keyboard in the display screen of a small size computer which does not have a keyboard, for example, and selects data inputted by depressing a key within the image to input it to a data processing application software.
In the data input device of this invention, the data image display feature displays, for example, a software keyboard in the screen and further displays an image of a plurality of keys associated with alphabet characters, Kana characters and symbols as a data image indicating data to be inputted.
The data input indicating image display feature displays the image of an input button in the window which the above application program displays in the display screen as a data input indicating image indicating input of data. The image of this input button is used for taking in data for which selection of data is completed by the user""s pointing and which is selected by the application program.
The pointing feature moves the mouse cursor in the display screen in response to the user""s manipulation of the pointing device such as a mouse having a button, for example, to point to an arbitrary position in the display screen, at least any position of the data image (image of the software keyboard), or a position of the data input indicating image (input button in the window of the application program).
When the user moves the mouse cursor, for example, to a data image (image of a key of the software keyboard) to point it and further depresses the left button (click), the data input selection feature selects the data indicated by the pointed data image (data indicating a character and a symbol, etc., displayed on the image of a key) in response to an external manipulation.
The selected data display feature displays data indicating a character string selected by repeated pointing to data images and data selections, that is, repeated movements of the mouse cursor by a mouse and clicking in association with the mouse cursor, for example, near the mouse cursor. By displaying the selected character near the mouse cursor, the user can easily confirm the data so far selected without losing it and, in addition, is less fatigued because the movement of the user""s eye is less.
When the user points to an input button in the window of the application program and clicks it, the data input feature supplies data of the character string so far selected and displayed in the selected data display feature to the application program and further displays it in the window of the application program, for example. In other words, the user can input data in a feel as if he or she drops the character string picked up from the software keyboard to the window of the application program (pick up and drop) and, in addition, manipulation of the mouse (movement of mouse cursor) can be largely decreased when compared to the prior art method.
The data conversion indicating means selects the type of conversion processing such as upper/lower/subscript conversion depending on whether the user depressed a plurality of buttons of the mouse in combination, single clicked, or double clicked.
By allowing the type of conversion to be selected by the mouse button in this manner, the user can select the type of conversion without the movement of the mouse cursor and with an improved operability when compared to the case where the type of conversion is selected by clicking other buttons of the window.
The data conversion feature applies a conversion of the type selected by the data conversion indicating feature to the data of character string so far selected and displayed in the selected data display means. The converted data is supplied to the application in the manner similar to the case where the data is not converted or displayed in the window, etc., in response to clicking of the data input button, for example.
The data input method of this invention includes the steps of displaying one or more data images indicating one or more data items to be inputted in a display screen, displaying a data input indicating image indicating input of data, pointing the position in the display screen of either one of the displayed data images or the displayed data input indicating image in response to external manipulation, selecting data indicated by the data image at the position pointed in the display screen in response to external manipulation, displaying one or more selected data items in correlation to the position pointed in the display screen, and receiving one or more selected data items as input data when the position of the data input indicating image is pointed in the display screen.
The recording medium of this invention records a program for causing a computer to execute the steps of displaying one or more data image indicating one or more data items to be inputted in a display screen, displaying a data input indicating image indicating input of data, pointing the position in the display screen of either one of the displayed data images or the displayed data input indicating image in response to external manipulation, selecting data indicated by the data image at the position pointed in the display screen in response to external manipulation, displaying one or more selected data items in correlation to the position pointed in the display screen, and receiving one or more selected data items as input data when the position of the data input indicating image is pointed in the display screen.